Waiting For an Answer
by hsmbffs
Summary: Troy and Gabriella have been dating for 9 months, but in an instant they might be seperated forever? Bad Summary, but VERY good story! FIRST STORY! TROYELLA! ON HIATUS!
1. Chapter 1

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Disclaimer: We do not own High School Musical or these character's names.

**Waiting for an Answer**

Seventeen year old Troy Bolton was standing on the corner of his street waiting for his bus to come around the corner. It was only 7 am and it was already turning out to be a bad day. His alarm didn't go off, and his parents had woke him up only 4 minutes before he had to leave and go catch the bus. He rushed out the door, even forgetting to print out his social studies homework from the night before.

Finally, he caught a glimpse of yellow out of the corner of his eye. He climbed onto the bus to find his girlfriend of 9 months, Gabriella Montez waiting for him. Troy winked at her and climbed into the open seat next to her. Gabriella pecked Troy on the cheek and asked him how his morning had been so far. He smiled and told her since he was with her now it was looking better. Troy then launched into his usual routine of telling Gabriella of how his morning had been on their bus ride on the way to school.

The couple hadn't stopped talking until the bus pulled into the school and Chad, Troy's best friend and fellow basketball player, told them to hurry up or they'll miss homeroom. Troy grabbed Gabriella's backpack, threw it over his shoulder, and then took Gabriella's hand before they started to run into the school before they realized the bell had just rung.

Ms. Darbus, their homeroom teacher, stood at the front of the room staring down Troy and Gabriella when they walked in. Ms. Darbus was the kind of teacher that could get angry at the smallest thing like a tardy.

"Troy, Gabriella what is wrong with you? This is the second tardy in two weeks. I am going to have to start giving detentions to the two of you. This is your final warning." Roughly, she made red marks beside their names on her attendance sheet and ushered them to sit.

Taylor, Gabriella's best friend and fellow member of the Scholastic Decathlon team with Gabriella, watched as the blushing Gabriella made her way to her seat.

"What happened between you two this morning? You should've known Ms. Darbus's moods." The two best friends laughed and then they continued to listen as the morning announcements continued on.

As morning announcements were going on Troy could only think about how great things are with Gabriella, their conversations are never awkward. Then, he remembered that Homeroom was the only class he had with Gabriella today. Days like these always seemed to take twice as long to be over with. He couldn't wait to see Gabriella at the end of the day when they would both take the bus home and go back to one of their houses to hang out.

Troy took a quick look behind him at Gabriella before he had to start his next class. When he looked back, a smile instantly crept up on his face. Gabriella was laughing at something that Taylor had said and the only thing Troy could think about was how he loved Gabriella's smile and every other part about her, living without Gabriella couldn't be done. Right when Troy was about to go talk to Taylor and Gabriella to see what they were laughing about, the bell rang and interrupted his thoughts. He sighed as he thought about being in Geometry next period when Gabriella would be all the way across the school in Chemistry.

In the hallway, Troy made his way over to Gabriella to make sure he gave her one small kiss before the end of the day. He waited at the door for her to come out. He saw her pass and say that she had to rush to Chemistry to talk to her teacher. He watched as she went running down the hallway, waving frantically and saying, "See you later Troy!!" He didn't even get a chance to wave back.

He began begrudgingly walking to Mr. Gersh's class thinking about Gabriella and his next basketball game. When he finally reached the door Mr. Gersh asked him to please take a seat. Troy quickly went to his seat near the window, where he started talking to Chad about the next night's game. Mr. Gersh stared at Chad and Troy until they stopped talking and then continued with his boring lesson about million of formulas that Troy neither cared about nor understood. Troy continued to look out the window, while ignoring the lesson, thinking about what Gabriella could be doing on the opposite side of the school in her chemistry class.

He was staring down at his pencil on his desk, still sitting there untouched, when all of the sudden he watched it shake and fall off of his desk. He took no notice and continued to stare out the window when it happened again. Then, he looked around and saw that Chad's pencil had fallen too while Ryan's eraser was rumbling on the middle of his desk. The feeling was so gentle at first, but then Troy knew what it had to be, an EARTHQUAKE!

Now the rumbling was getting worse. The magnets on the board were all sailing towards the ground. Markers, pens, rulers, and pencils were all falling off the desks. Papers and notebooks were flung around the room. Mr. Gersh was saying, "Children, on the floor!" A chorus of girls' screams echoed through the hallways. Troy's heart skipped a beat. What about Gabriella?!?!


	2. Chapter 2

Gabriella was in her Chemistry class thinking about how excited she was for her picnic she had after school with Troy. Taylor was sitting next to her giving her all the details about her recent date with Chad. "Okay so when we were in the movie theatre, he like put his arm around me and then when the movie was over, he actually kissed me...oh my god Gabi!!! It was so amazing.." Gabriella smiled at her best friend, genuinely happy for her excitement. She could see from Taylor's sparkling eyes that she really liked Chad. And this was the happiest she had seen Taylor in a long time. She had been crushing on Chad for a while now. Is this what I look like when I talk about Troy? Gabriella thought.

The bell rang and everyone took their seats while the most intimidating teacher at East High, Mrs. Hanson, began talking about the new reactions that they had learned about from their lab. Gabriella was half listening because all she could think about was her outfit that she was going to wear when she saw Troy later.

Then, she saw that her uneven desk had started to rumble. She could feel a vibration underneath her. Mrs. Hanson saw this too and without a second thought said to everyone, "This is not a drill, go under your desks!!!!! this is an earthquake!!!!!" Gabriella clutched onto Taylor's arm hoping that this was nothing but a dream.

In Troy's Geometry class, he watched as everyone was laying on the ground nervously. "What are we doing here!? Just waiting!? We need to do something!" He said to Chad.

"Bro, we can't do anything yet. You know we're not allowed to. Calm down." Chad replied.

"WHAT? CALM DOWN? I cant calm down, Chad. Gabi is on the other side of the school and I have no way of knowing if she is okay or not. I love her, Chad! I need to know if she's okay!...what am I going to do?"

The earthquake suddenly got incredibly worse. Troy could hear as whole desks behind him toppled to the ground. Everything looked like it couldn't be real, his head began to hurt from trying to see what was going on around him. He closed his eyes and clutched his head, hoping for the best. Sharpay was screaming her heart out down the hall and Troy could hear Ryan muttering to himself, "I am too young to die, I'm too young to die" as tears rolled down his cheeks. Troy couldn't bear it any longer. How could Gabriella be alone at a time like this? He needed her in his arms to make sure she was safe from harm. He didn't want her to be alone at a time like this...

Then, after what seemed like forever, the earthquake died down. Mr. Gersh, who had been trembling beneath his desk, stood up and told the class nervously, "Kids, the worst is over. Before the aftershock, everyone needs to evacuate the building. Move, quickly!!" The class, shakily, stood up and started to cautiously make their way outside.

"But Mr. Gersh, what about everyone else? We can't leave them..Something might be wrong!" Troy shouted over the comotion still standing next to his desk.

"Troy hurry please! You need to get outside. I'm sure everyone else will be fine and waiting for you." Mr. Gersh replied ushering him out the door.

Troy began to make his way outside, but first he took out his cell phone to be sure Gabi would be waiting. He knew her number by heart and called her, praying that he would hear her sweet voice telling him that she was fine. But then Troy started to panick even more as an electronic voice told him, You have now reached the voice mailbox of Gabriella Montez leave your message after the beep. "Gabriella, I'm worried about you. Please call back..You need to be okay." He hung up quickly and sighed heavily. This was the worst possible time to have your phone off.

As he made his way outside, he saw the destruction the earthquake had caused. Telephone poles were strewn across the parking lot and whole trees were taken up from the roots. Troy's heart beat faster and faster as he skimmed the already full lawn outside the school for Gabriella. When he couldn't find her, he asked Chad if he had spotted Taylor either.

"Troy, i can't find them. They have chemistry together, right? Where could they be?" Chad was beginning to get worried also.

"Police cars and ambulances are making their way to the school", Mr. Gersh told the class, just to make sure everyone was calm. "This way, we'll know what to do next."

Troy and Chad walked around the school asking everyone they knew if they had seen Gabriella or Taylor. Finally, Kelsi ran to them and said she had been near the part of the building where Gabriella and Taylor had chemistry when the earthquake had happened. She looked extremely pale and dirty. "Guys, it is really bad over there. All I could hear were screams coming from all around me in the other classrooms. I don't know if they made it out or not..."


	3. Chapter 3

After Kelsi left, Troy became even more upset...five minutes went by and the emergency response team had not responded yet. "Look guys," Mr. Gersh said to Troy and Chad, "I'm sure that there's ambulances coming… there must be a lot of debris on the roads."

This just caused Troy to pace back and forth because he realized how every second Gabi might be getting weaker and weaker… He couldn't stand knowing that Gabriella was out there scared without him there by her side. "GABRIELLA!" Troy screamed in anguish, wishing, waiting for an answer. But, he knew he wouldn't get one. 

Troy was almost at the point of tears when he looked up at Chad, tears in his eyes, and said, "I'm breaking into the school and getting to that Chemistry class. Are you in or out?" Chad looked warily at his friend, knowing that if he decided to do this it could mean death for them both during the aftershock. "Look Troy, do you realize how dangerous this is?" Chad questioned. "I don't really care if it's dangerous or not...I'd do anything for her. I need to make sure she's okay." 

Troy started to push his way through the mob of people, making his way to the school. Chad followed cautiously behind him. Troy and Chad finally found their way to a side door that had no teachers or students surrounding it. Plus, it was close to the side of the school that Gabi was in. Remaining quiet, they opened the door and made their way inside. Kelsi was right, this side of the school definitely was bad. Whole hallways had caved in and windows were shattered. Tiptoeing through the glass, Chad and Troy both were hoping that the Science wing, where Chemistry was, wouldn't be caved in too. After 10 minutes of walking through the wreckage, Troy and Chad finally made it to the hallway of the Chemistry lab. Shattered glass from the windows surrounded the door and Troy started calling Gabriella.. "HELP ME, help me.." Choruses of people's voices echoed through the hallway. They both started to run. 

With a hopeful heart, Troy thought he would see her through the chemistry class's broken door. Chad opened it and immediately, they saw the chaos. The teacher, Mrs. Hanson was bloody and obviously wounded. "Thank god you're here. I think I might have seriously injured my leg and a lot of other kids are in here hurt. Please, when is more help coming? "Troy and Chad looked at each other. They were not prepared for this. Groans of injured kids filled the room as they looked at each student. But, Troy still couldn't find Gabriella. 

"Chad..come here" A weak voice said from near a fallen bookcase. It was Rachel, one of Gabriella and Taylor's friends from the Scholastic Decathlon Team. As Chad walked over to her, Troy saw him immediately go pale. "Chad, what happened?" 

"It's Taylor, Troy. She didn't make it" Rachel cried pointing at a Taylor lying under the bookcase. Chad sunk to the floor with his head in his hands and started to cry. "Rachel, where's Gabriella," Troy asked frantically. 

Amidst Rachel's crying Troy made out "Ran…out…to….find…you." Troy's heart sank. All he knew Gabriella could be dead right now and it was his fault. 


End file.
